A company pays twenty thousand crowns a month for Google Ads management. Reports arrive regularly, the numbers look solid — CTR 4%, thousands of clicks. But revenue stagnates. The phone stays quiet. When asked how many actual leads came in, the agency replies vaguely: The campaigns are running, we’re optimising.
This situation is not an exception. The PPC agency market in the Czech Republic is growing fast, and quality varies enormously — from genuine experts to firms that survive because clients don’t know what to ask.
This article gives you 9 concrete warning signs you can verify yourself, without any technical background, in 30 minutes. I deliberately avoid sweeping generalisations: not every signal means fraud. Sometimes it’s incompetence, sometimes poor communication. But the result is the same for you — you are paying for work that isn’t being done.
1. The ad account isn’t yours — or you don’t have access to it
Ownership of the advertising account always belongs to the client, not the agency. This rule isn’t just an ethical norm — it’s embedded in the Google Ads Terms of Service. The agency connects to the account through an MCC (Manager Account) as an administrator. You are the owner.
Why would an agency want to hold the account in its own name? If you ever leave, you take the account with you — including the entire campaign history, accumulated data, and Quality Score. An agency that keeps the account in its own ownership takes that history away from you. You start from scratch.
| How to verify: Log in at ads.google.com. Can you see your campaigns and account settings directly? Or do you only receive PDF reports? If you don’t have direct access, ask the agency for admin access today.
Official documentation: MCC account ownership in Google Ads |
2. The change history is empty or full of cosmetic edits
Every serious Google Ads specialist optimises regularly — adding negative keywords, testing ad copy, adjusting bidding strategies based on data. Every such action is automatically recorded in the Change History.
If this section is empty for the past 30 days, your campaigns are running on autopilot. You are paying for management that isn’t happening.
But watch out for the other extreme too: changing an ad headline by one word every three days is not optimisation. It’s a performance for when you happen to look. Real PPC campaign management looks different — adjusting bids for specific keywords, adding negative terms based on the search terms report, running an A/B test on the landing page.
| How to verify: In Google Ads, go to Campaigns → Change History and filter by the last 30 days. Look at both the frequency and the type of changes.
Direct link: ads.google.com — Change History · Documentation: support.google.com/google-ads/answer/19888 |
3. The report contains no conversions — only traffic and CTR
CTR and click volume are media metrics. Not your business metrics.
An agency that reports exclusively on these figures either hasn’t set up conversion tracking — which is a serious problem — or knows that the real numbers don’t look good.
A proper report includes: number of conversions (leads, orders), cost per conversion (CPA), and ROAS or advertising cost of sale — the ratio of revenue to ad spend. The cost per click in the Czech Republic ranges from 2 CZK for long-tail phrases to 150+ CZK in competitive industries such as law, finance, or insurance (source: mytimi.cz). But CPC on its own means nothing if you don’t know what a single lead costs you.
Try a simple test: ask the agency directly — How many conversions did we get last month, and what was the cost per conversion? If the answer takes more than an hour or comes back vague, that’s a signal.
4. The agency refuses to explain its strategy or hides behind “proprietary know-how”
Your data, your account, your money. You have the right to know why the agency increased bids in a particular campaign, why it added or removed keywords, why it changed the targeting.
The difference matters. If the agency tells you: That’s our internal process, which we don’t share — that’s a red flag. A legitimate explanation sounds different: We increased bids in campaign X by 15% because the search terms report showed those queries convert three times better than average.
An agency that resists transparency usually has nothing to show.
5. They guarantee you first position or a specific ROAS
The more an agency promises, the more reason there is for caution. No serious firm can guarantee a specific search ranking or an exact ROAS — results depend on the auction, competition, ad quality, your website, and your offer.
Google itself explicitly states that Google Partner status confirms adherence to procedures and meeting investment thresholds — not campaign results. Guaranteeing outcomes the agency cannot control is either ignorance or deliberate manipulation. More on what Google Partner status means.
Forecasts and realistic targets are a different matter. Based on the data, we estimate a CPA of around 500 CZK is a legitimate approach. Guaranteed results are a red flag.
6. Juniors instead of seniors — and you find out by accident
Large agencies sell senior experts who give you the presentation. After the contract is signed, the account is handed over to a junior who is still learning the ropes. This isn’t speculation — it’s the standard business model of a significant part of the market.
| How to verify: At the kickoff meeting, ask directly: Who will specifically manage our account, and how long have they been working with Google Ads? Ask for the specialist’s name and check their LinkedIn or Google Ads certifications. If the answer avoids naming a specific person, that answer speaks for itself. |
This problem isn’t exclusive to large agencies — at smaller ones, the risk is that the one person who set everything up leaves the company, and nobody hears about it.
7. GA4 isn’t being used, or the data is distorted
Google Analytics 4 is not just a traffic tracking tool. For a PPC manager, it’s a critical source of intelligence: where converting users come from, what the engagement rate is for paid traffic, where users drop off. If you need a deeper understanding of what your GA4 data says about your campaigns, professional Google Analytics 4 analysis can help.
An agency that doesn’t actively work with GA4 is essentially optimising blind. Worse still is when data is deliberately distorted — for example, including advertising bounce traffic in the conversion report, making the averages look better than they are.
| How to verify: Ask the agency: When did you last check the engagement rate in GA4 for our PPC campaigns, and what did you find? A serious specialist will answer with a specific number and a conclusion. A vague or generic response signals that GA4 is not being actively used. |
8. The contract terms make it hard to leave
A good agency has no reason to hold you by force. If the contract includes steep penalties for early termination, a ban on consulting competing agencies, or a notice period exceeding three months — ask why.
Standard notice periods are typically one to two months. Anything longer without a clear justification suggests the agency knows that on an open market, some clients would leave.
Equally important: who owns the data when the relationship ends? Account access, historical data, exports — all of this should be clearly settled in your favour. Read your contract carefully, focusing on the termination and data ownership clauses.
9. Response times are slow and communication is one-way
Monthly PDF reports are not a partnership. They are statements from a vending machine.
PPC campaigns react to seasonal shifts, competitive changes, and algorithm updates — sometimes you need to act fast. An agency that doesn’t respond to a straightforward question by the next day, or communicates exclusively through a junior account manager with no direct access to the specialist, is not delivering the service you are paying for.
ADS Agency commits to a two-hour response time as an internal standard for clients. If your agency doesn’t have even an implicit commitment like this, it’s time to name it openly: What is your guaranteed response time on client queries? The answer will tell you a lot.
What to do when you spot the warning signs of a bad PPC agency
Don’t rush to terminate the contract. The first step is a direct conversation — specific, without accusations. I noticed there are no entries in the change history for the past month. How do you explain that? Sometimes it really is a misunderstanding or poor communication that can be resolved.
If no answer comes, or the answer is unsatisfactory, the next step is an independent account audit. A specialist agency will review your campaigns and tell you what they genuinely see — without any attachment to the previous relationship. How to choose a PPC agency — if you haven’t read that article yet, it’s the logical next step.
Questions worth asking — even when you have no doubts yet
The nine signals above are not a list designed to make you suspicious of every agency. They are a checklist that will give you confidence. An agency that works honestly will welcome these questions — or may even answer them before you ask.
If instead you encounter dismissive reactions, evasive answers, or the feeling that this is all complicated and you wouldn’t understand — trust your instincts. Your data is yours. Your account is yours. And the results are your business.
| Want to know where your campaigns really stand? We’ll run a free, no-obligation audit — and tell you the truth, even if it’s uncomfortable. |
